Business Case of Project “First Review”

Abstract

In the current scenario of digital information world, the social media communication has become a much stronger channel for expressing the views and opinions. First Review is such a social media platform that has been intended to be developed and provide it as a channel that could facilitate the users/subscribers provides their reviews and opinions on various products, services or their choice of interests like movies, books and arts etc. The proposed project has commercial viability and the project aims at the existing gap in the current market scenario. The detailed business case of the project with inputs on the project requirements, cost benefit analysis and the other critical information has been discussed and provided for effective outlook on the project idea and the recommendations pertaining to the project has been provided in this business case.

1.0 Introduction

Information and communication technology has become an integral part of today’s living scenario. The kind of digital revolution that has developed in overall has been very effective in terms of providing a medium for knowing the information on various facets of activities and also to express about various things which we encounter in our day-day life.

The Proposed project is about creating an effective platform for posting the reviews on various products, services, book reviews and the opinion sharing and the information contests, which could encourage the public towards sharing their potential reviews and enable the information sharing process. Though there are various social media platforms that are available for posting our views, sharing our thoughts, this portal “First Review” runs as a contest for knowledge sharing and reward winning.

It will be an integrated system where the multiple stakeholders are engaged in the portal, and enable the visitors and the advertisers and the service providers communicate effectively and develop a business eco system. The proposed business case is aimed at the commercial viability and the model has potential scope for having commercial success in the market.

2.0 Market Analysis

There are numerous portals in the current market which is catering to various customers as a social media platform to express their opinions and choices, however in few sites it is restricted to your friends circles and in few to the people who follows us also. There are few other sites which are intended only for the informative purpose and the visitor of the site learn about the latest trends or the topics provided, but have no other materialistic gain or an opportunity to gain value addition. But in the case of First Review, we enable a platform where the project works as a medium for both the service providers or the product sellers and the customers to have an interaction and similarly the authors of the books and the site subscriber to have an interaction thru the portal and also the benefit is that the end user the subscriber can get some rewards from the service or the product companies.

3.0 Assessment of Benefits

There are various benefits which the portal gains out of the entire project proposal. The major benefits which the companies gain out of entire project scenario are the data about the choices and preferences of the customers.

When thousands of individuals register with the portal and keep interacting with the companies, providing their reviews in the public and categorized forums, it enables an interactive platform and the revenue which can be raised from the companies for enabling an effective platform is one source of revenue.

In the backend process, the kind of valuable data which the company gains out of the front end communication, can be used by the in house research team and provide special insights to the companies and the service providers which could help them in decision making about their products, customers and the promotional plans. This in turn is a revenue source for the organization.

Also the other major benefit is that the customer database which the company has could be very resourceful to develop any contests or promotional campaigns where the subscribers can participate and get rewarded.

4.0 Cost Benefit Analysis

One of the intrinsic issues pertaining to a business case is the cost benefit analysis. In the case of the First review, initially there is significant cost that has to be invested in terms of developing sound enterprise architecture and information systems planning and the portal has to be developed effectively to with stand any amount of data transactions and the load factors. Also in the kind of existing scenario the essential need for promotions to get the site popular among the internet users, significant costs have to be incurred towards promotional campaigns and social engagement.

However the return on investment (ROI) is very much in a positive note and the business case shall breakeven in the 4th quarter of the project launch and the return on investments could average out to 20% from the second year of the project.

5.0 Options Appraisal

The potential opportunities for the project is very much positive and in the kind of emerging trends of information exchange it is very much feasible that the projects like “First Review” shall get adequate traction in the market. However the crux lies in ensuring that the promotion of the project shall be very effective in terms of communicating the value proposition to both the visitors/subscribers and also the clients (companies/services providers/professionals/Authors) and making them take part in the active communication and interaction between the various stakeholders thru the First review platform.

6.0 Key Assumptions and Dependencies

The following are the key assumptions which are based on the ongoing trends in the industry

a) The online advertising business is promising and the companies are investing on online ads on the sites where the traffic is very high

b) There is a demand for good interactive platform and when the first review kind of platform is enabled which can also fetch them the rewards for sharing their opinions could be more promising and interesting for the social media enthusiasts

The key issue of dependency is about the quality of interaction and the information sharing that takes place on the First Review Platform. If the quality of the content is not moderated and monitored, then it might lead to the disinterest of the stakeholders and might hamper the project prospects.

7.0 Risks and Sensitivity Analysis

The potential risks that are related to the business case of First Review are about the execution of the project plan with in the stipulated time schedule. If the project schedule gets delayed it could impact the project budget as the cost of overruns could be significant

The other major risk factor that has to be strategically managed is the scalability issue. When there is some growth trajectory that is envisaged during the initial phase, the momentum of such growth has to be effectively handled by the organization.

The sensitivity issue of the project is to ensure that the moderator manages effectively the forums and the review platforms in order to ensure that no obscene or objectionable content is displayed, or any kind of objectionable remarks that could hurt the sentiments of a community or a group is posted in the platform.

8.0 Resource Requirements and Costs

Resources are key factors for the success of any project. For the project case “First Review”, there is need for resources like technical infrastructure, physical infrastructure and the talented pool of human resources who shall drive the project. The estimated cost of implementation of the project is around half million dollars in the first phase and during the period of scaling up the project another half million dollars of investment is required in order to ensure that the project is made successful in the market.

9.0 Funding Source / Timing / Certainty

The estimated budget for the project is very essential for the success of the project and for the purpose of the project success the source of funding is as follows.

During the initial stage 45% of the project cost is invested by the promoters group and the other 55% is to be raised in the form of Angel investments or the crowd funding methods.

During the scale-up period, where the second round of funding is required, then the possibilities are about sharing the equity and raising the capital from the internal sources or approaching the Venture Capital companies who might be interested in the online business proposals.

When the certainty factor is discussed, till the present scenario the certainty is up to the promoters funding and the other parts of the funding requirements have to be worked in the industry and identify potential investors who could be interested in the project.

10.0 Timescales

One of the most essential parts of the project is the time scales. For the proposed business case of “First Review”, the timescales are as follows

Product Development – 3 Months from Start of the Project

Marketing & Promotions Planning – 3 Months from Start of the Project

Pilot the Project – One month

Launch of the Project – After completion of the Pilot

Promotional Campaigns – From the Launch of the Project

Scalability of the Project – Fourth Quarter from the Launch

11.0 Conclusions and Recommendations

The project is viable provided if the execution part of the entire proposal is meticulously planned and implemented. In the current scenario of the information oriented market scenario, this project could be a good platform for the organizations to have an rewarding structure of information systems, the customer feedback system and for the end users who are keen on sharing information online, this could be a better platform to provide inputs and their opinions about various aspects like products, services and the other inputs like professional services or books.

The crux of the project is about the execution of the idea in to a proper system, and the opportunities for the project are very high and the project has the ability to provide lucrative returns to the investors in the project.